In a new global collaboration, Make Music, Make Friends is connecting school children aged 7-13 from Australia, China, India, Italy, Pakistan, Thailand, the U.K., and the U.S. on Make Music Day this year.

Ten classes from each country, coordinated by the Make Music Alliance and Make Music Day UK, are creating musical greeting videos (with traditional or modern songs), sharing them with schools from other countries, and having their students watch these musical messages on June 21.

Through this virtual exchange, Make Music, Make Friends exposes children to different regions and cultures, while providing an authentic audience for their own performance.

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For the first time since the pandemic, Make Music Boston is back!

Under the new leadership of the Boston Music Project, Make Music Boston will feature an “ultimate jam session” outside of eight food trucks at the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a found sound beatmaking battle, a summer solstice festival with the Boston BID, and countless other creative events for and by the huge community of Boston musicians.

Visit the Make Music Boston website

Steelpans are the only family of chromatic, acoustic instruments developed in the last century. Invented in Trinidad around the Second World War, they are traditionally handmade from oil drums, and hand-tuned by a small number of master pan tuners.

Although historically hard to come by, steelpans will be found in 11 cities around the U.S. in participatory events for Make Music Day 2023, thanks to Panyard’s Jumbie Jams, an entry level steel pan designed to be easily playable by anyone.

Many thanks to Panyard!

Roomful of Pianos has become a highly anticipated event at The NAMM Show in Anaheim CA, bringing spectacular performances of music arranged for 10 pianos, 20 pianos, or even 40 pianos to the show’s international audience of music industry attendees.

This year, Roomful of Pianos comes to Make Music Day, with piano showrooms and music schools hosting colossal piano events around the U.S. on June 21. Among other pieces, repertoire will include free, multiple piano arrangements generously donated by Virtual Sheet Music.

Email us if you want to organize your own Roomful of Pianos event on June 21!

More details here

We’d like to take a moment to thank Sweetwater Sound for its longstanding Make Music Day sponsorship!

Since 2016, Sweetwater has spread the word about Make Music Day to thousands of customers, and even organized Make Music Fort Wayne for several years, bringing bands and musical discovery to their Indiana hometown on June 21.

These days, Sweetwater’s dance card in June is filled with GearFest, taking place online June 23-24 with exclusive product launches, artist interviews and performances, unbeatable deals, and above all, gear.

But Sweetwater continues to join its customers in celebrating Make Music Day, and stands by to ship any last-minute gear that may be needed for June 21.

Visit Sweetwater online!

As you finalize your Make Music Day plans next month, take advantage of new tools to help get the word out!

You may have noticed our refreshed logos, but we also have an updated, easy-to-use poster generator where you can create images for your newsfeeds and stories, and let everyone know your June 21 plans. (Click the link and scroll down the page.)

Then share your posters on social media using the hashtag #MakeMusicDay, and don’t forget to tag @makemusicday so we can repost!

Join Make Music Day’s 4th annual global song swap, #MySongIsYourSong!

As part of Make Music Day, the celebration of music taking place in more than 1,000 international cities on June 21, songwriters and composers of all kinds are invited to record a song by another artist, from another part of the world, and hear one of your original songs covered by them in return!

This year two lucky artists who participate in #MySongIsYourSong will be selected at random to win valuable prizes from our partners: two concert ukuleles from Flight, two Scarlett 4i4 audio interfaces from Focusrite, and two Launchkey 37s from Novation.

Register by May 22nd Deadline extended to May 29th! Sign up at makemusicday.org/songswap. Partners will be carefully selected and introduced the first week of June, then will share their video performances on June 21.

We are proud to partner with NAMM on its Million More Music Makers teacher training initiative next week at the NAMM Show in Anaheim CA!

If you teach guitar, ukulele, or bass – or want to start – there are over 50 hands-on workshops, sessions, and events to help you become an inspiring and effective teacher, along with the hundreds of concerts, exhibitions, and special events the NAMM Show is famous for.

If you are going to this year’s NAMM show, stop by the Make Music Day booth (#6417) and say hello!

Showing just how participatory Make Music Day can be, we are excited to feature Stridulations for the Good Luck Feast by composer and percussionist Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), as a new national project for 2023.

Stridulations is a set of interlocking rhythmic pieces that anyone can join, whether or not they read music. Following an ingenious system of Xs and dots, participants play rhythmic cycles on any instrument or voice, locking together like a Samba band, or stretching out to sound like crickets calling to each other across a field.

Do you have a good sense of rhythm, and want to bring Stridulations to your town? Email catherine@makemusicday.org to sign up and receive instructions, an excerpt of the score, and the link to a Zoom with Billy in late May to learn the piece and how to lead it.

A record number of communities across the U.S. are gearing up for a summer celebration of music on June 21!

This year, Albany, Ann Arbor, Fresno, Indianapolis, Raleigh, and Tulsa are celebrating their inaugural Make Music Days, while Boston, Detroit, Huntsville, and San Diego return for the first time since the pandemic. Over 120 cities are active around the country, joining over 1,000 international Make Music cities.

Find a celebration near you!